


The Long Game

by renegade_angel



Category: Now You See Me (Movies)
Genre: F/M, M/M, POV Alternating, Post-Now You See Me, Slice of Life, Slow Build, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-18
Updated: 2018-08-19
Packaged: 2018-08-23 06:47:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 9,514
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8317924
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/renegade_angel/pseuds/renegade_angel
Summary: After the events of "Now You See Me", the Horsemen are at loose ends. What's the next step? What does the Eye want from them? Will they ever perform again?A long fic that picks up directly after the first movie and explores what happens after fame and fugitive status.





	1. Daniel I

**Author's Note:**

> I don't own anything you recognize.

It just didn’t make sense.

Daniel squinted across the room at where Agent Rhodes – “call me Dylan” – was chatting with Jack and Merritt. Henley was hanging back, still a little starry-eyed. Rhodes said something with a grin and Jack laughed, more than willing to just go along with it all and accept him into their weird little group. Even Merritt chuckled, already taken in by this…stranger.

Rhodes was an entirely different person. They had been watching him – _apparently_ on his own orders – and the grumpy old fool that they had come to know and mock was nowhere to be seen. He was smiling, joking, the constant tension that Daniel had first noticed in the interrogation room entirely gone. He was just _lighter_ somehow.

Daniel didn’t trust it.

Yes, they had known that someone was behind their orders, a member of the Eye that they had to follow blindly, trusting that everything would work out; that they were doing these elaborate shows for a reason. But it was so much easier to believe in something you couldn’t see than to trust in an actual person.

People were complicated. People were unpredictable. People made mistakes.

Daniel had found that out the hard way.

He stood up, putting his tea aside, and walked over to the happy little gathering as Rhodes continued to entertain.

“So, what next?” he asked, stopping the previous conversation in its tracks. They all looked to him, the other Horsemen with frowns and Rhodes with a raised brow. “You say that we’re in now, so what does the Eye want from us?”

The others also turned to face Rhodes, curious about what would happen now that their instructions had run out. They had all wondered about the Eye, what kind of things they did, what their grand purpose would be once they passed their trials, and now they would finally find out.

“Next, we’re going to work on your teamwork,” Rhodes began. “You pulled off the first three shows very well, but you need to learn to work as a single organism.”

“That sounds very nice and all, but what do you want us to do? Trust falls? Make a human knot?” Daniel wrinkled his nose to show what he thought about _that_. “And what about another show? Or heist? Tell me the Eye has something in mind.”

“Wait, you need to be patient,” Rhodes responded, holding his palms up. “The Eye has a plan.”

“Wonderful, good to know, but shouldn’t we be told what the plan is so we can–“

“Hey, hold up, sparky,” Merritt interrupted. “We just finished three highly intense shows that took a year of planning. I think we can have a little break before we jump back in. After all,” he clapped Rhodes on the shoulder, “gotta get to know our illustrious leader first, right?”

“Yeah, Danny, relax,” Henley said. “Dylan knows what he’s doing and he’ll let us know what he can when he can.” She raised her eyebrow at Daniel. “Unless you’ve run out of faith, Danny.”

“Of course not, I just want to know–“

“I have a question,” Jack said, pulling the group’s attention to his corner of the table. “I know Tressler did some bad stuff and Bradley causes a lot of trouble for magicians, but why everything else? What did Credit Republicain and Elkhorn ever do to get the Eye’s attention?”

Daniel watched as Rhodes’s face closed off, just a little, before he smiled gently at Jack.

“My contacts with the Eye didn’t say. They gave me this mission to get some justice for the people who’ve been screwed over by all these groups, but more importantly to find some worthy recruits.” He leaned forward, resting his clasped hands on the table and making eye contact with each of the Horsemen. “And I have to say that you are even better than what I was expecting.”

Daniel watched each of their faces brighten in pleasure and told himself that he didn’t feel his own cheeks growing warm with the praise.

“Now Henley is right,” Rhodes continued. “I can’t tell you everything now, but you just have to keep the faith. The Eye knows what they’re doing.”

“Well, can you tell us about something else? Like how you could keep such a straight face when you were running around like an idiot, ‘tracking yourself’?” Merritt smirked.

“Tricks, mostly,” Rhodes responded, “some science. And can’t forget the voices in my head.”

They all laughed at that, even Daniel letting out a soft chuckle. They had gone over their lines for the interrogation so much that they were all seared in each other’s memories even now. But they all heard what Rhodes didn’t say: that he knew at least some mentalism. That he probably knew all of their tricks and how to counter them.

“So what else do you know?” Jack grinned. “Cuz man, I’d love to spar with you for real some time! You had to have been holding back before in the apartment, right?”

“Only a little,” he assured. “You put up a good fight. The cards were inspired, Jack. I knew you could throw, but that was something else.”

“Naw, man, I’m sure you could do better.”

“No, I couldn’t.” Rhodes’s smile fell away, revealing the serious nature they were more familiar with. “You have to understand something. I may have some wide-spread skills when it comes to magic, but there’s a reason I picked all of you. You’re special. You all have such potential just waiting to be tapped, both individually and as a group. I can help you get there, but you have to trust me. Trust in the Eye. If you can do that, we can do something really amazing. Together.”

“Hey now, this is getting a little mushy for me,” Merritt said. “Can we skip the kumbaya crap and figure out what we’re supposed to do now?”

“You’re right,” Henley said. “We’re fugitives now, well except Jack.” She tipped her head towards him and responded to his rolled eyes with a little shrug. “What are we going to do?”

“For now, you’re going to stay in New York.” Rhodes pulled a small briefcase over. “I’m going to lobby to be in charge of the hunt for you guys, which shouldn’t be a problem, and I’ll convince the FBI that you’re following your pattern of moving to a new city after each show. There’s already an apartment set up for you to share–“

“Whoa, you can’t be serious–“

“Not again!“

“I don’t think that’s a good–“

“Strictly speaking, I’m better on–“

“Guys!” They all quieted down at Rhodes’s raised voice. “This is just temporary while the media circus dies down. It’s better that you stay together and lay low. I also have these for you,” he tossed a leather wallet to each of them, “to help.”

They each opened their wallet to see driver’s licenses, credit cards, insurance cards, some cash, and a key.

“Nathan Katzen?”

They all look up at Daniel’s voice to see him looking at his license. The others quickly pull theirs out.

“Jacob Cameron isn’t so bad. At least I can go by ‘Jake’ and it’ll be close.”

“How come I get stuck with the old guy name? ‘Alfred Garrison’ sounds like some old butler type who was born in black and white!”

“At least ‘Diana Harris’ doesn’t leave many options for horrible nicknames.”

“Oh, I’m sure we’ll think of something, Princess,” Merritt told her.

“Anyway,” Rhodes said as Henley glared at Merritt. “Your new address is on your ID’s and you each have a key. Head over, get settled, while I go into the office and start laying some groundwork. I also have to go to Paris to settle something, but I’ll be back soon.”

“Yeah, yeah, don’t let the kids stay up late or have too much junk food, I promise,” Merritt said.

“You have my number,” Rhodes replied, grinning.

“Um, no we don’t,” Daniel said.

Rhodes just winked and started to walk out. When he got to the door, he paused and turned back. “Just be careful, okay?”

“We will be,” Henley said, “now go.”

As he finally left, Daniel took out his phone and looked through his contacts. And, lo and behold, there it was:

DYLAN.


	2. Merritt I

_Thank God_ Dylan was back. It had been a long week without him and Merritt wasn’t sure he could take it much longer. He had thought it was bad before, when they somehow had to get ready to perform All of Jesus’s Miracles TM in only a year: a year full of hissy fits, sleepless nights, obsessively checking and re-checking every part of the plan, and enough tea to drown all of England with.

And that was just Daniel.

At least then, they had had something to focus on, even if Merritt’s convinced that the stress made his hair even thinner. He had thought that he knew how to handle these children, how to nudge them in the right direction when they were on his last nerve.

God was he wrong.

“Dylan!” Merritt met him at the door, feeling like one of those yippy little dogs excited for their master to come home. And hey, as long as he got a belly rub and a treat, he was okay with that comparison. “Finally! Please tell me you have something for us?”

Dylan just squinted at him, then smirked. “How long did it take?”

“How long did _what_ take?”

“Take your pick: Jack to prank you, Henley to out-gamble you, or Daniel to bother you with theories about me?”

Merritt stared. Dylan stared back, still smiling confidently. Merritt sighed.

“A day.”

Dylan raised an eyebrow. “Oh? Which one?”

“ _All of them_ , you omnipotent Eye! All. Of. Them!” Merritt waved his hands in the air. “And it just got worse from there!”

“How so?”

“It’s all Daniel’s fault! He got this idea that he should keep practicing in case you came back with a new plan. Then Henley tried to talk him out of it and he obliviously goaded her into competing with him, which sounded like a lot of fun to Jack. For the past six days, they’ve done nothing but try and out-do each other!” Merritt made sure to widen his eyes to show how serious he was as he whispered the worst part. “Not even my room is safe.”

“I’m sure it can’t be that bad,” Dylan said, making to step out of the entryway.

“Whoa, hold up there,” Merritt stopped him. “Weren’t you listening? _Nowhere is safe_. Step at your own risk.”

“I think I’ll take my chances,” Dylan replied, still looking far too bemused for the situation at hand.

Merritt shrugged. “Don’t say I didn’t warn ya.”

He watched in disbelief as Dylan walked calmly down the hallway and through the living room without setting off a single trap or trick. He eyed the hallway dubiously, wondering if he could get back the same way he got to the door. _Ah, screw it_.

Five minutes and two contusions later, Merritt met Dylan in the kitchen, dripping Tabasco and sporting a brand new layer of silver glitter. Dylan had the balls to just shake his head disappointedly, trying to hide his grin. “Now, Merritt, feeling a little rusty?”

“I don’t know what kind of magic boot camp you went through or if it’s something you picked up bein’ a Fed, but I ain’t ashamed to say that dodging mysterious sparkly bombs isn’t something _I_ trained for.”

While Merritt grabbed a towel from the drying rack and started wiping off, the others seemed to have heard the commotion and had come to see who’d gotten caught.

“Dylan! Excellent!” Daniel was the first to spot him and clapped his hands once to punctuate his statement. “Now that you’re back, maybe you can tell us more about the Eye and their plans for us?”

“He just got back, Danny,” Henley rebuked. “Give the man a second to settle in before you start interrogating him, all right?”

“No, no, he doesn’t _need_ a second, Henley, he _needs_ to tell us about the Eye,” Daniel said. “Now, we have been waiting patiently,” Merritt groaned through the now-red-orange towel, “while you’ve been away doing whatever it is you were doing, but I think we’ve earned some information after all we’ve done.” Daniel raised an eyebrow at Dylan. “So?”

“ _So_ ,” Dylan responded, “just like I said before, we need to get you guys working together until you’re a single unit. You did good for the first act, but that won’t cut it for Act Two.”

“Yeah, but what _is_ –“

“Danny!”

“Thanks, Henley. The key to a good team is to know each other’s strengths and weaknesses. To do that,” Dylan suddenly grinned, “I propose a skills exchange.”

“You mean like a demo?” Jack asked. “Cuz I’d love the chance to show off a little.”

The Horsemen all narrowed their eyes, looking around and sizing up the competition.

“That could be fun,” Henley said.

“No, I mean that you would teach each other some of your best tricks,” Dylan held up his hands when they all opened their mouths to protest. “It’ll help you understand each other better and appreciate everyone’s skills. Maybe you’ll even learn something.”

They all stayed quiet for a few seconds longer, contemplating what Dylan had said. Merritt decided to jump in before the others found a reason to complain.

“Well, that sounds like a bucket of fun, but we don’t have to start right now tonight, right? How about we all relax, break out some booze, and get to know Mr. Rhodes over here, hmm?”

Jack, Henley, and Daniel all started to smile, but Dylan had apparently elected to ignore the mischievous tilt to them in favor of relief that an argument had been averted. “Sure, that sounds fine,” he said.

Two bottles of whiskey later, Jack had managed to stick the queen of hearts to Henley (it was currently on her forehead, though that was bound to change any minute), Daniel was giggling like a little girl, and Merritt was frustrated.

“Oh come on! There has to be something I was right about!” he said to Dylan. “I cracked everyone else’s nut once they had enough drink in ‘em; I’ll crack yours too!”

“You’ll need titanium pliers to crack me, Merritt,” Dylan responded with a chuckle, leaning back in his armchair and casually sipping his drink. “Why don’t you do Henley again?”

“Yeah, Merritt, _do_ Henley again,” Jack repeated as he threw another card at Henley, sending Daniel into another giggle fit. Merritt looked over to where she was sprawled on the floor and saw the king of hearts land right next to the queen, one on each cheek. He made eye contact with her, tried to ignore how his stomach tightened at her lazy smile, and wrenched his gaze back to Dylan.

“Naw, I wanna know something! Y’know Atlas isn’t the only stubborn one around here. Throw an old dog a bone, why don’t ya?” Merritt wheedled. “You planned the whole thing, right? All the shows, the chases, all of it?”

Dylan tipped his head in acknowledgement.

“Well, how long did it take? Planning all those details and contingencies on such a deep and intricate level must’ve taken a while.”

Merritt watched closely as Dylan took his time answering, the others having quieted to pay attention as well. He looked for any flinch, any twitch on their leader’s face, but couldn’t see anything. Nothing beyond eyes as sharp as his own looking back at him.

“Longer than you think and less than it deserved,” Dylan finally answered.

“Right, cuz that tells us _so_ much,” Jack muttered.

Merritt disagreed. It might not have been straightforward, and he still couldn’t see anything on Dylan’s face, but the choice of words said a lot about what Dylan thought of both them and the plan. But it also gave him even more questions. Still, Merritt knew when to retreat.

“Okay, okay, so you don’t want to talk about the old plan. What about old tricks?”

“Sure, Merritt,” Dylan said. “You got something in mind?”

“Matter of fact, I do,” he said. “See, I was thinking about it, and while we all pretty much figured out why you gave us our tarot cards–“

“Three minutes,” Henley sneezed into her gloved hand, to which Jack started laughing and Daniel started pouting.

“–it seems to me like you left someone out. So tell us, what card are you, mon capitan?”

“You know, I hadn’t really–”

“What about the Magician? Or the Emperor?” Merritt continued.

“Nah, he’s gotta be Strength,” Jack refuted.

“He could be Justice,” Henley argued, pushing herself up onto her elbows.

“The Fool,” Daniel said sharply, seeming to end the argument. He seemed to have come out of his drunken haze a little and was now staring at Dylan, eyes narrow and bright. To that, Dylan just smiled.

“Like I was saying, I hadn’t really thought about it. I guess we’ll never know.”


	3. Jack I

Jack was getting pretty good at this whole knot-tying thing. Of course, they were only in their second afternoon of learning, but he was picking it up faster than Merritt and _definitely_ faster than Danny.

“Danny!”

Ah, speak of the devil and he shall screw up.

“That knot was perfect, Henley, a classic bowline.”

“No, you somehow managed to turn a simple bowline into some Frankenstein’s monster of a Birmingham bowline and a Karash double loop.”

“Wonderful, my skills are already so great that I’m creating new knots!”

“Only if you can duplicate it, which _I_ have no idea how to do and I was watching you the whole time!”

“Oh, was it too complicated for you?”

“Excuse me? _I’m_ the escape artist here and–”

“–and you’re worried that I’ll upstage your talent. I understand. But don’t worry; I’ll leave the little escapes to you in our next show.”

“ _Little?_ Listen, you pompous _little_ ass–”

Jack tuned out the Henley/Danny Show and focused on finishing his handcuff knot around Merritt’s wrists. They’d spent most of the afternoon practicing on each other while Henley tried again to teach Danny the basic knots that he and Merritt’d learned yesterday. However, instead of untying Merritt right away, he reached over, grabbed another of their practice ropes, and started trying to tie a Turk’s head.

“Uh, Jack? Jackie-pooh?”

Not looking up from his knot-work, he hummed in reply.

“Aren’t you forgetting something?” Merritt asked.

“Nope.”

“You sure?”

“Yep,” he said. “The whole point of this is to learn to get out of these knots, right? Well, go ahead; I believe in you, Merritt, you got this.”

“Yeah, that’d be a whole lot more convincing if you had looked up while you were saying it or you sounded even a little excited, kid.”

“Woo?”

“Why thank you for that remarkable enthusiasm,” Merritt said. “Now, while you’re all high on life and everything, how ‘bout you drop that and come over and untie old Merritt, huh?”

Jack, very maturely, blew a raspberry at him in response.

“Fine, you want to play it that way?” Merritt cleared his throat and raised his voice. “Oh, Henley?”

Jack watched out of the corner of his eye as she stood up and walked across the room, Danny following her so they could keep arguing. Once they got close enough, Merritt stuck out his foot to try and trip Danny, but he dodged it and glared, all without stopping his squabbling with Henley.

“Yes, Merritt?” Her voice was pleasant enough, but Jack still got a shiver of danger running down his spine, enough to get him to finally look up from his ( _successful! beautiful!_ ) knot.

Henley had her feet wide and her arms crossed. She seemed to be ignoring Danny entirely and was staring hard at Merritt, her lips slightly pursed in irritation. Jack looked over at Merritt, who seemed entirely unconcerned at potentially unleashing her wrath.

“Jack, being the precocious little scamp that he is, has successfully tied my hands. However, he’s also being immeasurably cruel to a poor, old man and refusing to untie them. Seeing as you haven’t had the time to teach us yet how to escape from this particular knot, what with trying to manage Daniel’s ineptitude–”

“Hey!”

“–I was hoping you could help me out and untie me yourself, or at least coerce Jack over here into doing it.”

Henley turned to him and raised her eyebrow.

“And how, Jack, did you learn to do a handcuff knot?” she asked.

“I looked up some stuff last night and practiced a little,” he replied, following that with his best innocent grin. “I just wanted to do my best.”

As Danny and Merritt scoffed near simultaneously, Henley cooed at Jack.

“Aw, just look at my little teacher’s pet!” She reached out and scuffed her hand through his hair. A tingle of warmth shot down the back of his neck and he felt the tips of his ears blush. She then turned back to Merritt. “Looks like the slacker’ll have to get himself out of this one.”

“What if I bring you a shiny red apple for our next lesson, teach?” Merritt said with a wink.

Henley just playfully snapped her teeth in midair and turned to walk away. Before she had taken more than two steps, Danny had started up again and they picked up their argument right where they’d left off.

While Merritt struggled with the knot, cursing under his breath all the while, Jack was content to sit back and keep practicing with the Turk’s head. He didn’t know what had possessed Dylan to suggest starting with rope escapes as the first part of their skills trade, instead of letting Danny or Merritt go first and get it out of the way, but he was willing to go with it. Dylan had to know what he was doing, right?

“No, Danny, for the last time, you need to tie it tighter!”

“I don’t want to cut off your circulation! You’ll probably need feeling in your hands at some point in the future!”

“Yeah, but your last knots slid off without me doing _anything_. I didn’t even twitch!”

Honestly, sometimes Jack didn’t know if Henley and Danny liked each other at all or if they only put up with each other for the arguments. Either way, they seemed to have fun, sniping at each other all the time and finding ways to bicker about the smallest things. He much preferred the simpler friendships he had with the others, but then, he wasn’t a complicated guy, not compared with the other Horsemen.

While the others made a big production out of every little detail in their lives and performances, he mostly sat back and observed. He liked to focus on his role, leaving everyone else to worry about theirs and trust that they’ll get it done. Having proven himself with their first shows, he found himself getting caught up in his head even more than before; watching, learning, and waiting. Waiting for a chance…

“Now kiddies, play nice. Don’t make Uncle Merritt call your father home early.”

“Buzz off, Merritt!”

“Do you make a point to use archaic slang or are you just naturally an old lady on the inside?”

…A chance to _get_ _out_ of this apartment.

“That’s it!” He threw his practice rope aside as he stood up. “I’ve had it! I’m done! I thought it was bad this last year, but being stuck in here with you guys always arguing for _the last week straight_ is the final straw!”

He walked to the entryway, leaving the others still silent and gob-smacked behind him. They finally caught up as he was pulling his favorite leather jacket from the closet by the door.

“Uh, Jack?” Merritt asked softly. “You probably shouldn’t go anywhere yet. It’s too soon.”

“Yeah, everyone’s probably still looking for us,” Henley added. “And…well…you–”

“You’re supposed to be dead,” Danny finished, blunt as always.

“I’ll keep my head down, then. Besides, Dylan gave us those new ID’s, so I’ll just say I’m a look-a-like. Everyone has a few out there somewhere, right?” He pulled on his jacket and continued when they didn’t say anything else. “Look, it’s just a little walk. Twenty minutes, tops.”

He watched as they exchanged looks, far more serious than they had been since their last show. Finally, Henley sighed.

“It’s not a good idea, Jack. We’re all going crazy, but we just have to tough it out a little longer. Besides,” she added with a smile, “Dylan knows what he’s doing. You just wait; he’ll have us back onstage in no time.”

After a moment, he blew out a frustrated breath and started to take his jacket off. “You think so?”

“Guarantee it.”


	4. Henley I

“What’cha doin’?”

“Checking the online forums,” Henley replied, looking up to where Merritt was lying on the couch across the living room. There was a book on his stomach, but his hat was covering his face, so she’d assumed he was asleep. _Evidently not_.

“Anything good?”

“Some conspiracy theories about why we did the shows, ideas on where we are now, just ridiculous stuff with no facts to back it up, really.” Henley scrolled further down, bored enough to keep going. She stopped when a title caught her eye and clicked on the link. “And a suggestion list for future targets.”

Merritt sat up at that, his hat falling to the ground. “Excuse me?”

“Yeah, a bunch of people have contributed to it. Apparently, we have plenty of people who want us to continue our ‘crusade against corruption’ and are more than willing to point us in the right direction.”

“Huh,” Merritt said. Then he smirked. “And I repeat: anything good?”

She had to laugh a little. “Oh, you know, at least half of all the Fortune 500, plus a few governments and…some charities.”

He’d gotten up and was looking over her shoulder now. “Um, what’d the Red Cross do to deserve _us_?”

“Something about their CEO making an absurd amount of money, I think.” Henley shrugged.

“ _Okay_ , then, moving right along,” Merritt said. “That’s it? Come on, you would think the Elite Magic Society would be a bit more creative.”

She turned to stare at him, a little incredulous. “What exactly do you want from them, Merritt? A detailed breakdown of exactly how we did it? Theses on the intricate details of our motivations with reasoning dating back to specific childhood events? Or perhaps a character study of how we interact with each other behind the scenes, citing such experts as Dr. Phil and Freud himself?”

“To start with, yeah. They could then follow up with an in-depth history of magic in the world and a discourse on the obscure inner workings of the Eye.” He grinned at her, eyes twinkling. “Then I _might_ be satisfied.”

She released another little huff of laughter. That was one thing Merritt was always good for, even if she would never admit it in so many words. It was…nice to be able to count on his humor, especially when everything else was driving her _crazy_.

It’d been three weeks since they’d gone into hiding and, much like the other Horsemen, Henley was quickly approaching her wit’s end. She’d managed so far with things like trawling the message boards and catching up on some shows and books she’d missed in the last year, and of course there were the ill-conceived lessons she’d tried giving the boys on escapology, but it wasn’t _enough_. She was not made to be a homebody and all this sitting around and waiting for something to happen had never been her style. She got her energy from people, from doing things, hell, from seeing the sun every once in a while.

To be honest, Henley wasn’t sure how much longer she could take this. _Something_ had to change, and it’d better change _soon_.

“Hey.”

 _This is_ so _not what I meant_ , Henley thought as she looked up and saw Danny striding into the room, Jack following behind. Danny was engrossed in his phone, to the point where Jack had to gently prod him away from tripping over the ottoman and banging into the coffee table. Only when he was safely ensconced in the couch did he look up from his phone.

“Hey!” he repeated more exuberantly, seemingly surprised that they were all there.

“And what is so fascinating, Danny-boy?” Merritt asked, leaning forward and crossing his arms on the back of his chair.

“I just got a text from Dylan. He says that he’s convinced his boss we’re not in New York anymore, so it should be safe for us to start going out again.”

They all sat in silence for a minute. For her part, Henley was kind of shocked. She had been starting to think that they’d never be allowed to leave. They didn’t even go out to get their own _groceries_.

“Well,” Danny started, “we shouldn’t all go out at once; it’ll draw too much attention. I’ll go first, get an idea of–”

“Oh no, not a chance,” Henley interjected.

“Yeah, you shouldn’t get the first taste of freedom just because you’re the most neurotic,” Merritt added.

“What if two of us went?” Jack said. “Then we could watch each other’s backs.”

“Okay, so Henley and I–”

“Again: absolutely not. Merritt and I will go,” Henley said.

“What?”

“Why?”

“Because Merritt and Danny can’t go together; they would just snipe at each other the whole time and draw attention. Danny and I shouldn’t go for the same reason. And honestly,” she turned to Jack, a sympathetic frown already on her face, “I don’t think you should go yet at all.”

“That’s not fair! I’ve been going just as crazy as you guys!” Jack protested, brow furrowed.

“I’m sorry, but the facts are that you’re supposed to be dead and, fake ID or not, we’re in New York. People know you here.” Henley shrugged. “It’s just too big of a risk right now.”

Jack glared at her. She just held his stare. Merritt and Danny had finally shut up and were looking back and forth between the two of them, trying to see who was going to back down. Finally, Jack sighed and relaxed back into the couch.

“Fine, that makes sense. But I get to go out next time!”

“Sure,” Henley agreed. “In the meantime, Merritt and I should head out. It’s getting late already.”

With some grumbling on both Jack and Danny’s parts, the group split up again. Merritt, after doubling back to retrieve his hat, followed her to the entry to grab their coats, leery of the late winter chill. As she reached back into the closet to pull out a scarf and hat, he cleared his throat.

“He’ll get over it.”

“Which one? Because I’m not sure Danny knows how to ‘get over’ anything.”

“The kid’ll be fine; when we get back, he’ll greet us like a little puppy, excited to see us again because he was worried that we’d never come home again. Then he’ll badger us about everything we saw and did and let that ramp up his excitement for when he gets to go.”

“I’m not worried about Jack,” Henley admitted. “In some ways, I think he’s the most resilient of all of us. I just get this feeling that he’ll still be going strong long after the rest of us are done.”

“Well of course he will; I, at least, have about twenty years on him,” Merritt said.

“Aw, don’t worry Merritt, we’ll take care of you when your joints get creaky and your mind goes,” Henley teased.

“That’ll never happen,” he protested.

“What? Don’t trust us to look after you?”

“No, I’ll just never break down like an over-worked robot. I age like fine wine: the older I get, the more complex and flavorful.”

“And eventually you’ll get sour and acidic and we can use you to clean the house.”

Merritt actually paused after that. Henley was weirdly proud. And weirdly excited by the way he was staring at her. She could see his mind working, trying to think of his next move in their little match. Ultimately, after almost twenty seconds of silence, he grinned. Ridiculously, her breath caught briefly at the simple joy on his face. She hadn’t seen that in a while, on any of their faces really. He tipped his hat to her.

“Alright, conceded. I just hope I can be of service in my twilight years, ma’am. Just please be gentle,” he requested earnestly.

She grinned herself. “I’ll do my best, but I make no promises. Who knows what the boys’ll do.”

He shrugged. “Fair enough.” He opened the door and offered her his arm with a little bow. “Where to, m’ lady?”

She hooked her arm in his and took a breath of the crisp, cold air. _Damn, that tastes good_.

“Let’s see where we end up.”


	5. Daniel II

Daniel closed the book he was reading and tossed it on the cushion next to him, stymied for some unknown reason. Focus should have come easily, what with being the only one in the apartment at the moment, but it eluded him. It was – dare he say it – _too_ quiet. It was official: the sardine-like atmosphere they had all been stuck in for almost a month had ruined him. Apparently, he didn’t know how to be alone anymore.

He’d about decided to give in and find some mindless television show to rot his brain with when he heard a key in the deadbolt. He absolutely _did not_ perk up. Jumping up to see who was there was simply a sound precaution; he was a wanted man and someone could have taken one of the other Horsemen and made a copy of their key to lull him into a false sense of security as they broke in and slit his throat in a mad frenzy of revenge-lust!

…It could happen.

He got to the entry just when the door opened to reveal Rhodes, key still in hand and a surprised look on his face.

“Oh, hello,” he said, making no move to actually come inside.

“Hi.”

The silence stretched for almost a minute before Daniel got fed up.

“So, are you going to come in or just hover there for a while?”

“Well, I wanted to stop and take it all in, see if anything had changed.”

“Nothing’s changed since you were here last. Literally nothing is different in this hallway.”

“Mm, I see that.”

The silence came back for an encore.

“Okay, then, you just go ahead and meditate on that. Just make sure you close the door when you’re done; it’s already kind of drafty in here.” With that, he walked back to the living room, swiping his deck from the coffee table before falling back onto the couch. By the time Rhodes made his way over, he’d already run through his warmup and was halfway through his first tier cuts. In his periphery, he watched Rhodes watch him for a few seconds, and then he settled into the armchair crosswise from him.

“Where’s everyone else?”

“Something about a museum, then a grocery run. They really wanted to get out, now that we finally can.” He slanted his eyes over to Rhodes at that, though his hands kept going. Rhodes didn’t give anything away though, smiling blandly when he saw Daniel looking. He waited to see if Rhodes would say anything else, but looked away when he remained quiet.

This silence Daniel was comfortable in. Rhodes had clearly come for a reason and he would make that reason known in his own time. He’d probably wait for everyone to come back, not wanting to leave anyone out of anything, God forbid. Never mind that it’d be easier to just tell Daniel whatever he wanted to say and he could pass it on to the group; no, everyone had to do everything _together_. And who cared if Rhodes was imposing? After all, they only had this _magnificent_ apartment due to the Eye’s _generosity_ , and since Rhodes was their only link to the Eye, well, it just makes sense that he should get all of their _gratitude_ –

“What are you doing here?” Daniel burst out, stopping mid-fan and snapping the cards back together. “Something to do with the Eye? Have they decided on our next move? What have they–?”

“Whoa, whoa,” Rhodes said, holding up his hands. “I haven’t heard from them recently. I just came to check on you guys, see how you were holding up.”

“Oh, I see, well then, you’ll be pleased to know that our sanities are still intact, although it got pretty close near the end of our _confinement_ ,” Daniel hissed. “But no harm done, we’ll be ready for whatever the Eye wants us to do next.” He reached out and carefully placed his deck on the edge of the coffee table, adjusting the edges with his pinky.

Rhodes sat back in his chair and studied Daniel. At such a marked lack of reaction, Daniel found himself imitating him, leaning back in his own seat and waiting for him to do or say _something._

“You don’t like me.”

Daniel opened his mouth, prepared to spit out a denial, then thought better of it. “I don’t trust you,” he corrected instead. Rhodes tipped his head to the side and Daniel answered his silent question. “We don’t know anything about you, you’re hardly ever around, and we’re just supposed to believe that you’ll take care of everything?”

Rhodes shrugged. “Yeah.” Daniel glared and he continued. “It’s just like you’ve heard: being a part of the Eye is all about faith. You have to believe in yourself, each other, me; everything. You need to know in your gut that we’re doing something good, something right. It’s hard, I know, but that’s what we all need to do if we want to become… _bigger_ , you know?”

He should have sounded ridiculous, talking about all of this metaphysical, move-beyond-yourself crap. But he just sounded so _earnest_. Like he really believed all of that – without hesitation, without restriction.

Besides, wasn’t that why Daniel’d stuck it out? Sure, he’d been curious about the Eye, and the idea of pulling off the shows had been amazingly tempting, but he’d also, in the back of his mind, liked the idea of what the Eye stood for, what they did for people. To think that he could be a part of that? Well…

Daniel loudly scoffed. “Right, because we’re doing so much good here. You know, I think Merritt’s close to a breakthrough on renewable energy and Jack’s working on a cure for cancer in his spare time. _Oh wait_ –”

“Cut the bullshit, Atlas!” Daniel clamped his lips together at Rhodes’s audible aggravation. Even though he still looked unruffled as ever, Daniel could tell he’d finally cracked Rhodes’s composure. “If this is too _hard_ for you, you can just go. The Horsemen can’t afford to have a _quitter_ , especially after only a month–”

“–a month in _prison!_ I’m surprised you didn’t slap ankle bracelets on us before you left us to do who-knows-what in Paris–”

“What I did is none of your business. The only thing you need to worry about is keeping out of trouble until–”

“–until when, exactly?! Until the world forgets about us? Until the Eye decides they need us again? Until we’ve gone crazy from the isolation and become brainwashed drooling puppets that don’t have our own thoughts or questions? _Until when, Rhodes?!_ ”

“Until I say you’re ready, _that’s when!_ ”

Daniel couldn’t remember when, but at some point he’d gotten up and was now looming over Rhodes, bracketing the man with his arms. Rhodes had leaned forward, fire in his eyes and a sneer on his lips, until their hot breaths mingled in the scant inches that separated them. They stared at each other for a few seconds, trying to read the strength of the other’s conviction.

“You think just because you’re the one who gets to talk to the Eye that you have all the power here, but you’re wrong,” Daniel murmured. “You’ve got them all in awe of you still, but they’ll see what I see eventually.”

“And what’s that, Atlas?” Rhodes questioned, equally hushed.

“That there’s absolutely nothing special about you.”

For the first time since meeting him, Daniel _saw_ something leak through Rhodes’s previously shatterproof self-control. He inhaled sharply through his nose and his eyes flinched, something like emptiness flashing through them. But then he firmed up his lips and renewed his glare, as if to make up for the fact that Daniel was too close to have missed his moment of weakness.

“Do you know what _I_ see, Atlas? I see a man who is so desperate for control that he’ll lash out at anyone and anything that threatens it. I see a man who can’t look past his own ego to see that I am trying to _help_ you, that I’ve done nothing but help you, even when _you_ didn’t see it. I see a man itching for a fight so he can re-establish what he believes to be his lost dominance.” Rhodes leaned even farther forward, forcing Daniel upright as he stood from his chair until they were chest-to-chest. “What you refuse to see is that I’ve always been the smartest guy in the room. And I don’t see that changing anytime soon.”

Daniel kept their gazes locked for another few seconds, then flicked his eyes away. Satisfied, Rhodes stepped to the side and started to walk back to the entry.

“Let the others know that I’ll be by tonight to talk about rehearsals,” he called, not looking back as Daniel snapped to attention. “We’ve got a lot of work to do.” Then with a blast of wind and a bang of the door, he was gone.

Daniel sat on the coffee table behind him, rubbing his forehead. _Yeah, a_ lot _of work._


	6. Merritt II

Merritt hated to admit it, but they could really use a plan about now. Hell, he’d even take one of _Daniel’s_ plans, anal-retentiveness and dozen contingencies and all. He’d settle for knowing the purpose, or even the _location,_ of their next show at this point. However, Dylan didn’t seem to think that info was necessary.

Here’s the thing: Merritt liked Dylan. The sheer pigheadedness to stick it out as a Fed for this long was admirable, not to mention the absolute _brilliance_ of the elaborate plots he had come up with for the Horsemen. Plus, he indulged them on most of their bullshit, which pretty much gave him a free pass where Merritt was concerned. Overall, Dylan seemed like a stand-up guy.

Unfortunately, that all amounted to a hill of beans because Merritt was going to kill him.

“No, no, stop!” Dylan interrupted _again_ , waving his hands at the four of them. “That’s not gonna work. Try something different.”

Merritt glared. What did he expect? That they’d _magically_ have a million amazing new ideas each that would all work out flawlessly with no forethought or practice? That he could just throw them back on a stage together and they’d have another perfectly executed show ready to go in an hour?

 _Hmph, probably_.

They’d been at this for a few hours now, ever since Dylan brought them to this warehouse to work on their next show. Merritt’d assumed that meant he already had an idea of what they were going to do, maybe even some blueprints for a big trick or two. But no, Dylan wanted them to brainstorm as a group – damn him and his team-building too – to come up with new tricks they could all do together. That was fine, give Merritt a chance to juice the old melon, but it wasn’t a lack of ideas that was stopping them. No, they’d spent the whole morning and part of the afternoon going in circles around the table about _how_ they would do these new tricks. More importantly, who got to do what.

“Maybe we should take a break?” Jack suggested. He eyed both Merritt and Daniel, who was also glaring at Dylan. Henley was leaning back in her chair, seemingly relaxed but for the rolling _tap_ of her fingers.

“Yeah, it’ll be good to get some air,” she added.

“Fine,” Dylan said. He looked at his watch. “Just be back in fifteen minutes.”

Henley and Jack immediately pushed their chairs back and stood up, walking outside together. Dylan just sighed, looked at his watch again and at the two of them still at the table, then walked away himself in the opposite direction of the door the others had gone through.

For his part, Merritt looked across the table at Daniel. He’d pulled his notebook close and was idly doodling, not looking at what he was doing and scowling at nothing in particular.

“Ya have to admit I had a good point earlier,” Merritt said.

Daniel redirected his frown to Merritt. “I _have_ to do no such thing. I don’t make a habit of lying to myself.”

“Aw shucks, here I am thinking you have to just to look in the mirror every day.”

The frown turned quizzical to match the newly furrowed brow. “Are you actually a child?” Bastard sounded sincerely curious. “Like, did you stop mentally developing at the age of five?”

“I’ll have you know I come by my immaturity honestly, thanks: with middle age and a knife-sharp wit.”

“And here _I_ thought you were only as sharp as a tack. You know, one of those little ones that barely hang onto corkboard. My mistake.” 

“You’re just mad because I actually had a good idea earlier,” Merritt said, leaning forward and raising his eyebrows at Daniel.

“I never agreed to that; I only said that it _might_ work and _only_ if the right person was running point on it,” Daniel refuted.

“Which is you.”

“Obviously.”

“Not me, of course, I’m just the guy who thought of it and is the best at reading a crowd. No, you’re clearly the ‘right person’ for the job,” Merritt said, throwing up air quotes just to rile Daniel up.

“Who’s lying to himself now? You know that I’m the best at manipulating people. In seconds I have them eating out of the palm of my hand, every time.”

“I don’t see how, if you do with them what you do with me. Seriously, I enjoy our little back-and-forths plenty, but would it kill you to have an original thought? Or should I start wearing an eyepatch to match your stunning parrot imitation?”

“Are you saying your arguments aren’t worthy of repetition? Worried they’ll grow thin with repeated use?” Daniel asked. He slouched even further and smirked.

Merritt took up the frowning Daniel had abandoned, before deciding to be the bigger man and move on to a new topic. “I’ll tell you what I am worried about: going crazy in that small-ass apartment. I thought Dylan promised we’d all get our own places sooner rather than later?”

Daniel gave him a look, clearly judging him for the weak transition, before responding. “Well, maybe our lauded leader has been busy getting ready for our next show.” He waved his hand in a circle as if to encompass all of the work Dylan had _clearly_ put into this meeting.

Merritt had to admit that he had a point. Whatever Dylan was doing with his time, he obviously wasn’t spending a lot of it on a new plan. Sure, there was probably some merit in forcing them to plan a show together, without Dylan’s input, but Merritt was starting to feel like a cliché: _you never call, you never spend time with me without bringing your work home with you!_ Merritt was sure that, even now, Dylan was outside, checking in with the office on the manhunt.

“–yeah Fuller, I’ll take a look at it tonight and get back to you tomorrow, all right?” Dylan said into his phone as he walked back in. Merritt rolled his eyes. Sometimes, though he would never admit it, he got tired of being right all the time.

As he slipped his phone back in his pocket and sat down, Jack and Henley wandered back in too, red-cheeked and cheerful. Once they all got settled, Merritt turned to Dylan.

“Much as I _love_ arguing with you people, before we get back into it, I have a question.”

“All right, shoot,” Dylan prompted when Merritt paused to make sure he had everyone’s attention.

“How goes it on getting our own places? Cuz not that I didn’t love the dorm experience when I was in college, but this frat house is getting a little too small for me, not to mention all of Daniel’s hair products.”

“Hey!”

“Funny you should ask, because–”

“I knew it!” Daniel interjected. “You never meant for us to have our own space! You’re going to force us to become one person by _sheer proximity_!”

“– _because_ ,” Dylan continued, raising his voice a little to be heard over Daniel, “I’m just finalizing the details for the fourth apartment. They should be ready by next week.” When they all just stared at him, he just smiled gently, like he really understood how crazy they’d all been getting. “You all should start packing when you get home tonight. Don’t want to waste any more time, right?”

Jack jumped up and whooped, which broke the spell of silence. Henley moved to Dylan, asking him about the different locations and if he had already picked one for her yet. Jack migrated over too, excitedly asking Dylan if they were pre-furnished or if they could decorate them how they wanted and wondering how tall the ceilings were.

Meanwhile, Daniel just sat there. Merritt could see him stewing, a deep boil below the surface as he watched the group from afar. He got the feeling that anything else, any more heat, would cause him to boil over; he was just looking for a reason. When it happened – because Daniel seemed determined to make it so – it would _not_ be pretty.

Merritt just hoped no one got burned when it did.


	7. Jack II

It’s funny how simply having your own space can give you so much: elbow room on the couch, lazy mornings, peace, quiet, _freedom_. Jack relaxed, sprawling out on his new bed – well, _beds_ , if we’re being technical. He was currently in the top bunk of his brand-new, queen-size bunk beds. He’d always wanted them when he was a kid, and Dylan had said they could decorate any way they wanted…plus, this set was made for adults; it even had a real staircase built in instead of a flimsy ladder, with drawers in the steps for storage and stuff.

Yep, Jack was feeling very grown-up right now.

_Maybe I’ll put some glow-in-the-dark stars on the ceiling_ , he thought, before dismissing the idea. _Too distracting_.

He flipped onto his side, facing the high window next to the beds. The lights and noise from the street drifted up, warming his soul with the familiarity. New York was in his blood, a huge part of his identity, and he was secretly glad they had decided to stay, even though it made it a little harder on his end when going out. Henley was right: people knew him here, and he knew them. He knew these people, these streets, this city, and he had to be more careful than the others not to get caught. No more street hustles, for a while at least.

He flipped again, taking a second to punch his pillow before flopping down. The light from the window made some pretty interesting shadows in his new room. Something to get used to. He took a few seconds to look around, trying to memorize how everything looked now, undisturbed. You never know when someone’ll break in and lie in wait until you’re just about asleep before grabbing you.

He wasn’t paranoid; it was just good sense to plan a little when you had faked your own death to escape from federal custody.

_Oh, who was he kidding?_

He sat up, shoving his blankets off and climbing down the stairs. He flung open the door, pausing at the threshold to survey the rest of his apartment. Finding somewhere that would do, he stalked across the living room, threw the next door open, and slung himself on the railing of his tiny balcony, glaring down at the street.

_He was all alone_.

Sure, that’s all he’d wanted for weeks now, but apparently fantasy was better than reality in this case. When you start noticing the different kinds of shadows opaque and translucent materials make and wondering if you should invest in more glass furniture to reveal intruders easier, you have to give in. That kind of focus-on-the-miniscule-and-irrelevant thinking only happens in a few cases and Jack wasn’t fooling himself about which one he was in.

_Correction: he was lonely_.

He watched the street for a bit, arguing with himself as he watched cars and people go by. Finally he gave in, reaching in his pocket to grab his phone. He pulled up his pathetically short list of contacts, stabbed one with his thumb, and brought the phone to his ear. It rang for so long he started to feel guilty, but eventually he heard the click of a pick-up.

“Jackie, what in the world has you calling at 1:45 in the morning?”

Jack grinned, already feeling better. Whether that was from the sound of someone else’s voice or just how annoyed Merritt sounded, who could say?

“Hey man, you wanna do something?”

“Aw, you miss me already kid?” Jack could practically hear the smirk in Merritt’s voice. “And what if I had been in the middle of my beauty sleep, huh? You know it takes a lot to look this good!”

“Well you sure sound alert to me, I doubt you’re even in your PJs yet. Although,” Jack paused, “come to think of it, you might be. Couldn’t wait to bust out the unicorn onesie now that we’re all on our own?”

Jack distinctly heard a faint snort. He felt his smile take on a wicked tilt.

“Or maybe not so much? Do you have a _friend_ over, Merritt? Don’t tell me I interrupted something special?”

“Naw, nothing like that, Henley just couldn’t help herself at the delightful image you just painted for us.” They both paused as they took in what Merritt had just revealed. Before Jack could do more than open his mouth, approximately two dozen snarky comments on the tip of his tongue, Merritt barked, “Don’t even, Jack.”

“Aw, but Merritt,” Jack wheedled, “I just wanted to congratulate you on finally succeeding in your year-long quest to get into Henley’s pants. I bet Danny $50 it would never happen.”

“It’s not like that, she just came over for some coffee, _actual coffee Jack_ , and wait, what d’you mean you bet it wouldn’t happen?!”

“So do you and Henley wanna go out and do something?” Jack quickly said.

“Yeah, Jack, what did you have in mind?”

“Hi Henley. I don’t know, but late-night New York always has something fun, I figured we’d just meet up somewhere between our places and we could find something. And I thought I’d call Danny too, see if he was up for it.”

Merritt groaned, but Henley said, “Yeah, go ahead and give him a call. Just call it some kind of team-building thing, to get us more in sync for shows or something and he’ll probably be all over it.”

“Sounds good! So meet you guys at Myrtle-Wyckoff in 20?”

They agreed and hung up. Jack shifted to hit Danny’s contact and brought the phone back up. He hoped it didn’t wake the other man, Jack knew he hardly got any sleep anyway. Plus, even after more than a year Jack still found Danny unpredictable. For all Jack knew, he could be awake but refuse to answer, not willing to suffer through contact with anyone so late, or it could take only a couple rings, him wanting to make sure he didn’t miss any news from Dylan.

“Jack.”

Or he could pick up after only half a ring, voice flat with what Jack could only think was exhaustion. Jack ignored that, encouraged that Danny picked up at all, let alone so quickly.

“Hey Danny, I can’t sleep so Merritt, Henley, and I are meeting up to do something. You in?”

There was a brief silence as Danny obviously thought it over. Sometimes Jack wished he could see inside the other’s brain, if only to finally know what surely-convoluted arguments went round and round in there. Finally, after Jack had actually pulled the phone away to check the call hadn’t dropped, Danny responded.

“I guess I don’t have anything better to do. When and where?”

Jack smiled, giving Danny the details. _I guess I’m not the only one with too much space._


End file.
